Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
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Sunday, February 19, 2012

More amusing language blunders

Saturday, February 18

In a previous blog (Language blunders embarrassing but, from distance of time, amusing), I told of some interesting mistakes that
I and other stranieri have made in Italy, and today I hear of two more
while working with Curtis, a missionary in Italy who is also helping Steve and
Patti move furniture to their new house. Curtis has been in Italy for nearly 10
years, and as I ride in his car, we have a helpful conversation about learning
Italian, during which he mentions that he now is able to deliver a sermon in
Italian.

Always looking for an
interesting story, I ask if he has made any memorable mistakes during a sermon.
“I’ve probably made mistakes that I’m still not aware of,” he says. “Someone
did point out a problem in my first sermon. I meant to say, ‘capiamo,’
or ‘we understand.’ Instead I said ‘capisciamo,’ which essentially
means, ‘we piss together.’ Someone discreetly pointed this out to me after the
sermon.”

However, he said that
his friend Terry, who is already included in my previous language blunders
blog, had an even worse experience. He preached an entire sermon on
discouragement, with the gist of the message being that we should not be discouraged.
But there are only a few subtle differences between scoraggiare,
discourage, and scorregiare, pass gas. Terry repeatedly used the wrong
word and hence he essentially preached that his listeners should not fart—surely
good advice in a land where fare la bella figura is important, but not
exactly a message with the spiritual significance he intended.

“Now I try at all
costs to never use the Italian word discouragement,” Curtis says, “because
after hearing that story, I can never quite be positive that the correct word
is going to come out of my mouth.”

1 comment:

hahahaha! oh that word makes me laugh so much! when Nels and I were at the space needle, a little kid passed a note on the window. it was all crumpled up and i opened it to see the word "fart" scrawled in crayon. I laughed so hard because I know he crinkled it up so his parents wouldn't see it and it reminded me of Dad's story of the 3 worst words.

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About Me

First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.